IRN question

[girly]

I'm entertaining the thought of using Jezebel's old cage (when I get her new one) and just making room somewhere for it, and get the IRN.

My question is this -are these birds hard to get? Is my best bet to look on line for an IRN breeder and have one shipped? I don't like the idea of getting one from a store, and we don't have pet or bird fairs around here.

[Jag]

I will give you a little 'food for thought' on this... since we went through it several months ago. We were looking for a blue male. You wouldn't think it would be too hard.. but it was! Finally had found one that was 'reasonably priced' in CA. The breeder dropped of the face of the earth for a few weeks after we'd asked for pics several times. We finally did get a pic, but I doubt it was of the actual bird we were inquiring about, as the pic showed several blues and he said he only had one. He didn't DNA the bird, so we didn't know if it was really a male or not. He claimed that it was weaned, but the bird wasn't old enough to be weaned. Just a few issues with buying from a breeder you can't visit. Be wary.

Locally, we could only find one that was 'close' to a blue, and they wanted an arm and a leg and it hadn't been handled. We didn't even go to see it. They go through a 'bluffing' stage which we decided we didn't want to deal with at the time. We were told by one person that we contacted that it wasn't a big deal.. but this is why the bird hadn't been handled in awhile. I'd ask on the Ringneck forum for some details on behavior. My wife may still choose to deal with it sometime in the future, but it was more than I wanted to get into since the boys already had aggressive behaviors, and I didn't want to mess with another one. I LOVE their cute voice and the way they look, but I didn't want to deal with any aggression issues. I know that if raised right, they can turn out wonderful, but we couldn't find a good breeder with young babies. I hope you have much better luck! They are super cute!

[girly]

Jag, thank you! I honestly do not want to deal with much difficulty with a second bird. That info was helpful.

I know that blue fronts are highly recommended birds and comparatively easy. Well, they sure are, but I had one for 30 years so I want to try a different breed.

I'll keep researching, the IRN's are not for me.

[Jag]

Oh I did NOT want to turn you off to IRN's... but we didn't know about the 'bluffing' stage until after we'd started looking. I'd really suggest talking to IRN owners/breeders if you haven't before you decide that you don't want one if you really do want one... I think it may have been a different story if the boys had been tame for us. I think Blue Fronts are beautiful...but I had an issue with beak size and them being in the hot three... so please don't take my being a chicken of going through it to mean that YOU couldn't do very well with one...

I know there are a few owners here that have GREAT IRN's, and we asked questions of some on the IRN forum. When all the info was gotten... well, I just didn't want to add one to our 'mix'. Since we took in Ziva, the 'Inn' is full so to speak. I just finally got her moved upstairs, after waiting for HOURS for her to come out of her cage. I think she was seeing how long I'd wait. Anyway, I really hope that I didn't scare you off of them... and you may have a good breeder right there near you. I know it would've probably been easier if we weren't looking for a certain color... but it's a good thing that we didn't find one.

[girly]

Jag, just out of curiosity, I contacted my breeder and sure enough, she breeds IRN's. She said they'd be ready in the spring and asked me what color I wanted. lol!

I have to give this a lot more thought!

[T.W.]

Here in florida, you can get an IRN at just about any time of the year. I saw an add for one on craigslist, that is my blue female, Skye, she was $100, I was told she was untame, and she was in a small rusty cage with no toys, and perches that were for parakeets, so her foot bothered her, and the woman thought she was doing a cute michael jackson move with her foot, once I watched her I could see that her foot hurt her, she wasn't being cute, we took her regardless of whether she was tame or not, poor thing. After I gave her the correct size perches, her foot is completely fine, no more MJ moves with it. She was also completely hand tame, so I do not know how long that woman had her. She does not like my husband, only me, but that is okay, she loves sitting on my head. My second IRN Sunny is also from craigslist, he too was $100, he was treated much better than Skye, and he is also hand tame, he is yellow, he was 7 months old, and Skye is allegedly 4 years old, well now, soon to be 5. I had heard horror stories about IRN's throughout the years, so never really considered them, but now, I am hooked on these little guys. All birds are so individual, you have to meet the bird and see how it goes, they are tempermental, as are all of my birds, but they now hold a special place in my heart. These guys are also the best eaters of all my birds, they will eat anything I give them, real chow hounds!!

[girly]

That's a great story, T.W. I'm doing a lot of research before and if I get another bird. Now I'm researching the ekkie's.